The Business of America is Lobbying

How Corporations Became Politicized and Politics Became More Corporate

Lee Drutman

Description

Corporate lobbyists are everywhere in Washington. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 represent business. The largest companies now have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them. How did American businesses become so invested in politics? And what does all their money buy? Drawing on extensive data and original interviews with corporate lobbyists, The Business of America is Lobbying provides a fascinating and detailed picture of what corporations do in Washington, why they do it, and why it matters. Since the 1970s, a wave of new government regulations and declining economic conditions has mobilized business leaders, and companies have developed new political capacities. Managers soon began to see public policy as an opportunity, not just a threat. . Ever since, corporate lobbying has become more pervasive, more proactive, and more particularistic. Lee Drutman argues that lobbyists drove this development by helping managers see the importance of politics and how proactive and aggressive engagement could help companies' bottom lines. Politics is messy, unpredictable, and more competitive than ever, but the growth of lobbying has driven several important changes that have increased the power of business in American politics. And now, the costs of effective lobbying have risen to a level that only larger businesses can typically afford. Lively and engaging, rigorous and nuanced, this will change how we think about lobbying-and how we might reform it.

The Business of America is Lobbying

How Corporations Became Politicized and Politics Became More Corporate

Lee Drutman

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Pervasive Position of BusinessChapter 2: Why the Growth of Corporate Lobbying MattersChapter 3: The Growth of Corporate LobbyingChapter 4: How and Why Corporations LobbyChapter 5: How Corporations Cooperate and CompeteChapter 6: How Corporations Make Sense of PoliticsChapter 7: How Lobbyists Perpetuate LobbyingChapter 8: Testing Alternative Explanations for GrowthChapter 9: The Stickiness of LobbyingChapter 10: The Business of America is Lobbying

The Business of America is Lobbying

How Corporations Became Politicized and Politics Became More Corporate

Lee Drutman

Author Information

Lee Drutman is a senior fellow in the program on political reform at New America. An expert on lobbying, influence, and money in politics, he has been quoted and/or cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Slate, Mother Jones, Vox, Politico, and many other publications, and on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Planet Money, This American Life, Marketplace, Washington Journal, and The Colbert Report, among other programs. Drutman also teaches in the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at The John Hopkins University. Prior to coming to New America, Drutman was a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation. He has also worked in the U.S. Senate and at the Brookings Institution. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. from Brown University.

The Business of America is Lobbying

How Corporations Became Politicized and Politics Became More Corporate

Lee Drutman

Reviews and Awards

"With careful research and an unflinching eye for telling detail, Lee Drutman shows beyond any doubt how big money is strangling our democracy, and why the rest of us must take action before its last gasp. A vitally important book everyone who cares about America must read." -- Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor

"Why do corporations lobby? How much do they spend to sway the federal government? Lee Drutman amassed the data to answer these hard questions and many others, including the hardest of all: what has lobbying done to American democracy?" --David Frum, senior editor, The Atlantic

"The ever-rising amount that corporate America spends to shape government policy is hard to ignore-except, it seems, in American political science. Now, finally, we have a meticulous, innovative, yet remarkably readable analysis of the post-1970s lobbying boom: why it happened, how it feeds on itself, and how it is reshaping American politics. This book is likely to start a boom of its own, forcing political science to grapple with its fresh findings and powerful new arguments." -- Jacob S. Hacker, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and co-author of Winner-Take-All Politics

"Drutman's description of corporate lobbying, standing alone, is worth the price of admission. But he pairs this empirical work with sound judgment, sensible policy proposals, and a clear-eyed view of the world. It's an irresistible combination." -- Heather K. Gerken, J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law, Yale Law School

"In the most impressive compilation of new data and analysis on corporate relations with the US government ever completed, Lee Drutman's painstaking and comprehensive study shows clearly how important individual corporations are in the federal lobbying game. At the same time, he shows just how dependent corporate leaders are on their government relations staff for knowledge about the value of the work of that very staff; how corporate lobbying is often as ineffective as it is self-perpetuating; and how it raises the cost of democracy for everyone. This will be seen for years as the best book on corporate lobbying in America and should be read by everyone with concern about how our government really works." --Frank R. Baumgartner, Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science, UNC-Chapel Hill, and co-author of Lobbying and Policy Change

"Drutman's book is a must-read for all who are concerned about the influence-peddling game. It alerts us to this growing threat to democracy itself, and it intrigues us to search for solutions." --Craig Holman, Public Citizen News

"...let me stress how edifying and entertaining I found The Business of America Is Lobbying. Anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of business, politics, and the growing intersection between the two should read Lee Drutman's book." --Matthew Mitchell, George Mason University

"Drutman presents one of the more thoughtful analyses of lobbying in America that has been made so far." --Jeff Madrick, The New York Review of Books

"Drutman offers a package of reforms. The proposals call for greater representation of noncorporate interests and increasing government's policymaking capacity. The latter raises the question of why Congress has not yet empowered itself. One possible answer that lessens businesses' fault for the current state of affairs is that just as firms are skilled at constrained optimization in their market and nonmarket environments, politicians are skilled at structuring the rules that govern these environments to their own benefit." --Political Science Quarterly